Hai Van Pham, 55, was fatally beaten during a robbery at his Houston convenience store on July 15, 1995. An immigrant from Vietnam who arrived in the United States with his wife and four youngest children in September 1994, Pham had taught his children English and hoped to reunite the rest of his family from Vietnam. On the day of the attack he was working in the store while his 14-year-old son napped nearby; the violent death shattered the family’s plans and left lasting trauma for his children.

The investigation led to the arrest of 32-year-old Garcia Glenn White of Houston, who confessed during police interrogation to beating Pham to death in the robbery. White’s admissions and DNA links also connected him to earlier killings, and he was ultimately prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death in the case of the Edwards triple homicide. Pham’s killing was not tried separately but was cited in White’s pattern of violence.